Annie’s cousin Steph sent this to Annie and I thought I’d share it. I’m the mad scientist, Annie is Frankenstein’s bride, Steph is the werewolf, Julie is Frankenstein, and Annie’s Grandma Betty is Dracula.

The new Levi’s commercial is well done. I mean how can you go wrong with Walt Whitman and sprinklers? But I can’t help think that it’s a bit ironic that there isn’t a single Levi’s factory left on American soil. The Levi’s I tracked down were Made in Cambodia.

An excerpt from “Where Am I Wearing?”

There is no such thing any more as a Levi’s factory. There hasn’t been since the 2004 closure of their last domestic plant in San Antonio, Texas. The company no longer produces jeans or any other type of clothing. They are a brand only. They design products, place orders with factories like the Roo Hsing Garment Factory

Sure, “jackass” might be harsh, but how else do you explain a cop that lies in wait on I-80 just beyond the point where the speed limit changes from 70 to 45 before a toll area and pulls over a dog-loving writer on his way to give a free talk at a library?

You broke a law too you know? It was still dark and when you followed me into the toll, you didn’t even have your headlights on.

It was dark, but I could see you. Don’t go thinking that you were “tailing” me or something. I’m sure that day-after-day of picking off motorists who are searching for change to pay the toll and don’t decelerate fast enough gets…

If you could go anywhere that was a 4.5-hour trip (plane, train, or automobile) away, where would you go? (Bet it’s not Amherst!) Post in the comments below and/or tweet me @kelseytimmerman (I need something to keep me busy while I drive clear across Indiana and Ohio!)…

This was the first question of the first interview I did after my book came out. It was such a simple question, but I struggled to answer it. I stumbled around and said something about how connected we all are. But just today I stumbled upon what I really wanted to say.

From Martin Luther King’s “A Christmas Sermon on Peace” (1967)

It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. Did you ever stop to think…

Not so long ago New York actually had a garment industry. Imagine that! Here’s a trailer for a new movie on HBO:

And an excerpt from Where Am I Wearing? for good measure:

The Northeast United States was once the bottom. Young girls worked at garment factories and textile mills. They were subjected to prisonlike conditions. Their rights were few, and their struggles many. In 1911, 141 workers—mostly women and girls—were burned to death in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City. Escape from the fire was prohibited by a broken elevator and the presence of only one fire escape. As workers attained more rights, the bottom moved to the South and…

Update: As if this story wasn’t sick enough already. The boy was on the Today Show with his family and started puking all over the place at 5:50. I’m not sure this story could be summed up any better than puking on national television. I hope he got some on the cameras. Meredith ignored the whole thing too.

I’m especially excited about this piece because it’s set to sounds I recorded with my mini-disc player I purchased before my 2007 trip. I’m pretty much a beginner when it comes to recording audio, but the folks at the World Vision Report have been awesome and offered great advice.